THISTLEDOWN.

Te Aroha News, Volume XII, Issue 1760, 17 August 1895, Page 2

THISTLEDOWN.

" A man may jest and toll the truth.” —Horace.

There appeared in the Herald about a fortnight ago certain reminiscences of Von T&mpsky’s corps, correct in the main, on which, however, I can make on the best authority ft few corrections. Few are aware that we have an old sergeant of the Forest Bengers in our midst in the person of Mr Harry Southey. His name is unaccountably left out in the story of the attack on the escort at Waihi. He had gone oyer on leave two days before alone to headquarters, and been compelled by the Major, whose mate he had been at Coromandel, to delay his return till he could accompany the escort, and was the first to spot the Maoris in ambush. It was he, too, who carried off the only wounded man, Jack Evans. They were the last of the retiring force and in taking a shot before falling back, Evans was hit in the groin. ‘ Don’t leave me to be tomahawked, Harry, by those devils;’ and Southey threw him over his, shoulder and ran for his life/ With the true modesty of a soldier, he still protests his motive was not. to save Evans’ life but Lis own, as his wounded, comrade’s body made a shield for his back and. the only risk he ran was of being hit about the legs. Jack Evans made certain he would die and was giving his mate all instructions about writing to his mother, but Harry laughed him out of the idea and he lived, married and begat children thoruaftorProbably the reason w y Sorgeat Southey did not get the New hi aland Cross was dhathhe corps-mutined after Von Tempsky’s death ; they could not stand Mac Donnell’s ‘ Go on’ after their old major’s * Come on,’ and rightly or wrongly did not think much of Col. Mac Donnell’s pluck. x <- -x . x x

.How the Colonial Treasurer could have made the blunders he did over the reciprocal .treaties with Canada and South Australia passes my comprehension. Our trade with .South* Australia is about four per cent of that with New South Wales and to make an exclusive treaty with the former, just as the latter was returning to a freetrade policy was the most suicidal thing 'imaginable. To swamp New Zealand, too, with Canadian timber and fish, not to speak; of other articles, was strange policy for a New Zealand Minister. Of what avail to put a poll-tax on Chinese here if we tax widows and widowers to give a bonus of <£20,000 a year on the importation of Chinese made goods from British Columbia ? He apparently, too, did not reckon with the people of the United States, who, despite all border customs would largely share on the sly in Canadian advantages, while openly they would retaliate by prohibitory tariffs on our gum, flax and wool. By the two treaties Auckland suffered worst, as her timber and fruit industries, would bo ruined to give Southland a few more paltry pounds on her oats. Luckily the Opposition appears general, Aucklanders for once stand shoulder to shoulder, and Government will probably have to take back their proposals. How they went out of their way the two countries we have least trade with is a puzzle to all, and reminds one of Sir Julius Vogel's high-flown ideas of trade with the Arofura Sea, an unknown sheet of water in Parliament till then, but memorable since, for Scobie McKenzie’s yarn of the Yankee captain who passed therejthrough, and .lost all his sails in a calm owing to the ravages of the mosquitoes. An English skipper by, not to be beat, inquired the latitude and longitude and on learning them confirmed the story by saying, ‘ Yes, I was about there next day and passed through a crowd of mosquitoes, and every man jack of them had canvas pants and jumpers on.’ 0 0 0 0

Arbor Day seems a fraud as at present constituted j at any rate it does not regard the date when New Zealand will be bare of wood by more than a second each year, and though! am pretty ancient I look forward to 'the time when the school ground at Waiorongomai will be the goal of pilgrims in search of the last relics of arboriculture in the colony. The operations of the French Government on the lands or sandy wastes along the shores of the Bay of Biscay between Bordeany and Bayouve from an object lesson to us. We have thousands of square miles of similar land on the West Coast on both sides of the Kaipara which are constantly being extended by the action of the winds. Planting would stop the spread of the sand, reclaim the waste, and give a steadily increasing profit after the first four or five years. 0 c o o

A most genial storekeeper with a temper somewhere between a rat-trap and a-lEjjsk. lolly, growled at my English the otheV (jay. As he comes from Lancashire he is of course a competent judge of current, though scarcely of classical English. I said 4 I was going to see Mr 8., didn’t see him but shall see him to-morrow.’ Mr noble Liverpudlian calls this Irish, and as he couldn’t see it wasjgenuine English—educated Irishmen would be ashamed to speak an educated Englishman’s language, let alone the hybrid chatter of the bulk of the representatives of the rose here —I told him straight and true that if I did speak Irish, if it were not for my countrymen his would over and over again have been slaves to Napoleon or some other. - ! lapyx.